The present invention relates in general to disposable containers employed for counting and disposing of surgical instruments employed in surgery rooms in hospitals. More specifically, the present invention relates to a surgical instrument receiving and counting platform provided in association with a disposable enveloping container used for disposing of the surgical instruments after use in surgery operations.
It is common practice in modern hospital surgery room operation procedures to count the surgical instruments, such as surgical needles and blades, following use in surgery in order to account for all surgical instruments employed in the operation and thereafter to dispose of such instruments by placing them in containers which can be simply disposed of without reuse. Various types of disposable counting containers have been developed heretofore such as in my prior patent No. 4,013,109 and in my prior copending patent application Ser. No. 216,426 entitled Surgical Blade Removal and Disposal Device. In these prior disposable containers, the surgical instruments are retained within a plastic case having a relatively thin foam pad with or without a magnetic strip for locating counting and disposing of surgical instruments. I have found that it would be desirable to provide a more inexpensive, simpler disposable counting and disposing container to reduce the expense attendant a one time use and disposal device.